The legal team of the Office of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya views the annulment of passports of former political prisoners expelled from Belarus as a gross violation of international law and another stage of repression aimed at the expulsion and further marginalization of Belarusians.
The Tsikhanouskaya Office stresses that passport annulment is only possible on the basis of clearly defined grounds and with соблюдение of procedural guarantees.
“The mass deprivation of documents on political grounds without a transparent procedure and the possibility of appeal bears the hallmarks of an arbitrary decision. From the standpoint of international law, this may indicate a de facto deprivation of citizenship without due process. This creates a risk of statelessness, which is prohibited by international standards”, — states the Tsikhanouskaya Office.
The Office notes that the annulment of a passport within Belarus does not automatically render it invalid abroad. Foreign states independently assess the validity of documents. Such passports may continue to be accepted as proof of identity, particularly in asylum and humanitarian protection procedures.
Former political prisoners with annulled passports may face the following problems:
- serious restrictions on managing property remaining in Belarus, including funds in bank accounts, real estate, vehicles and other assets;
- significant obstacles in оформлении and receiving inheritance;
- limitations in carrying out notarial actions, including parental consent for a minor child to travel abroad;
- risks of detention during border control, including within the Schengen area, where spot checks persist;
- if information on the invalidity of a passport is entered into international databases, airlines may refuse boarding;
- additional difficulties in legalisation — the need to obtain foreigner travel documents or other substitute documents in the country of residence.
“The Lukashenka regime is attempting to use the passport as a tool of pressure and punishment. However, from the perspective of international law, such actions do not deprive a person of their rights and should not be automatically recognised by other states. This is a deliberate attempt to make Belarusians vulnerable outside the country, and this is precisely why a consolidated international response is required.
The question arises: what next? If the passport becomes a lever of control, the next step will be its effective nullification within the country as well, in order to окончательно deprive people of freedom of movement and turn the right to leave into a privilege granted based on political loyalty”, — said Leanid Marozau, legal adviser to the Tsikhanouskaya Office.
It should be recalled that former political prisoners released and expelled from Belarus reported that their passports had been annulled. This became known after documents were checked via the Interior Ministry website.
